A Prototype Introductory Lecture For An Online Course

My personal goal for the next year is to spend more quality time promoting the spread of Epicurean philosophy in an organized fashion, and thereby increasing the true numbers of those who truly appreciate Epicurus. For that purpose I am working to set up a structured online learning course using a professional open-source software platform. I don't yet have the website ready to unveil, but I have made substantial progress on an opening lecture, and I thought I would post that audio now. I am sure this will continue to be revised and hopefully improved as long as the project lasts, but it's necessary to start somewhere, and rough as this is, it may already be of interest to someone.

It is my firm belief that we need **ongoing, organized** projects so that we can work with each other and feel part of a team working toward a common goal based in Epicurean philosophy. I hope an online course may prove to be one way to accomplish that. All sessions will include audio material, and in preparing those (lectures, Q/A responses, etc.) we can produce material that can also be used on streaming radio, and in discussing the details we can work together on the Epicureanfriends.com forum to preserve every draft. All initiatives should bolster each other.

To the extent we work together to generate materials, we build common contact, we produce material that can be used over and over, and begin to work toward a foundation that has a chance of lasting over time.

We can do this jointly with those who wish to participate, or individuals working alone can produce audiovisual materials which - just like other material - can be linked to online classroom presentations.

As I make more progress I will post more about this project, and I will gladly appreciate anyone who wishes to assist.

I am working toward a January 20 launch for an initial course. For now, here is my very rough audio opening presentation to an "Introduction to Epicurean Philosophy" online course.

Hiram why do you recommend Coursera. I am a major believer in open source software, and I've invested a couple of days studying Moodle.org and have it already installed and am probably committed to it.